Goodbye Modern Masters, Hello [Insert Theme Here] Masters

In a post on reddit yesterday, Senior Magic Designer Gavin Verhey revealed that future Masters sets will be based around specific themes rather thanformats.

Despite the fact that the Modern Masters sets and Eternal Masters were financial successes, Verhey said that Wizards of the Coast needs to be very careful about how much they reprint certain cards. He also stated that limiting Masters sets to only reprinting cards relevant in a single format was unnecessarily constraining Wizards’ ability to reprint cards. Modern, Legacy, and Vintage players all need reprints, and switching to thematic Masters sets will allow Wizards to reprint a much broader range of cards every year.

Last year’s Iconic Masters was the first attempt at a themed Masters set. Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, it was also the first Masters set to flop financially (at least for local game stores). Wizards’ next thematic Masters set will be Masters 25, which will celebrate Magic’s 25th anniversary and release in March 2018. Hopefully Wizards has learned from the mistakes they made with Iconic Masters last year and gives Masters 25 a better chance to succeed.

Magic’s newest expansion, Rivals of Ixalan, officially releases today. All of the new cards will be on display this weekend as players battle in Team Sealed at Grand Prix Indianapolis. You can watch coverage of the event at twitch.tv/magic.

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Read Gavin Verhey’s statement about thematic Masters sets, rather than format-specific sets like Modern Masters, here.